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Untethered from the winter’s seal

Like lead: still burdened by the winter’s seal
come break it, have the yoke of onus banned
With sun’s delight, we say farewell to night
a blowing wind, to lift this pregnant veil

and wake from sleep: the verdant vale;
let purple hedgerows scent the dawn; enlighten night;
as we are setting sail, for sea to smash the seal
of sullen snowdrift, melt the ice, and let the band

of golden gulls and daffodils; unbanned.
and doom the hail, the gale, and like the seal
who dances with the waves — unveiled
we meadow-barefoot challenge night,

and by the river meet the spring, a knight
his cyclops-eye, a Midas’ lamp above, unveils
a sky of indigo and shells — conducts the band
of diamond daggers, slash-destroy the winter’s seal.

Perfume me in your vale, untethered lift the broken seal
as netherworld of night by songs are shunned and banned.

A photo from Madeira manipulated by me.

Today I present my Quartina at toads, it’s a form I have invented myself and it is a downscaled sestina, making it a little bit easier to cope with. Having listened the whole day to Poetry by Tomas Tranströmer who died earlier this week, some of his metaphors might have inspired me. I will also link this to PU tomorrow morning.

I really enjoyed your wordings here, Bjorn. In part, it feels like it pays homage to the arrival of spring,and then again the ending has a a mythological feel which adds another dimension. I also like how you manipulated the photo – lovely!

The form is spectacularly done Bjorn ~ That third stanza stands out for me with the undulating waves ~ Admiring the word pairing: meadow-barefoot, slash-destroy ~ That ending couplet is perfume of night songs ~ You make this look easy, smiles ~

I love this form, was trying to identify it as I was reading, thanks for the note underneath. It sings, it uplifts, your word choices are gorgeous. This is one of my faves of yours, Bjorn. Just stellar writing!

Great photo manipulation. I enjoyed your poem so much. We all have dark, icy places that need the seal broken. I’m impressed with your form. That’s probably one of the most creative things to do – to develop your own form. You’re a man of many talents Bjorn. So nice to know you.

This one of yours is nice too, I like it a little better than your Challenge post. What I liked best were the seasons, the snow, flowers, the storm, and the river.
Thank you for this challenge, yes, it also took me about three hours with no time for mellowing or proofreading. I did keep it in iambic pentameter which worked well for me.
On the challenge comment I left the following:
“Well, Bjorn, I liked this one also. You made a good choice. It took more time for me to compose though.
I wrote my end words first, then wrote lines that fit with each other and as a not used meaning or context for each of the four words.
More proofreading might confuse me??”
..

I seem to have missed this piece earlier. It struck me as having a rather Midsummer Night’s Dreamlike quality to it – albeit breaking winter’s seal. A lovely medieval-esque phraseology to some of the lines – channelling a bit of the Bard, me thinkes. A stellar write: Just wonderful!